-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- While the eyes of golfing world were on rising star Rory McIlroy on Thursday , two surprise names claimed the first-round lead at the British Open .

A tearful Thomas Bjorn overcame the recent death of his father to shoot a superb five-under-par 65 despite difficult early conditions -- then late in the day 20-year-old amateur Tom Lewis shocked everyone by joining him at the top of the leaderboard with a record-breaking effort .

The duo share a coach , but apart from that their stories could not be more different .

The 40-year-old Bjorn was able to tee off at Royal St. George 's -- where he blew his best chance of winning a major title in 2003 after squandering a four-shot lead on the last day -- only after several players pulled out , including Tiger Woods and lastly Vijay Singh on Monday .

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The Dane , 11 times a winner on the European Tour , has made the halfway cut just twice since his father passed away in May following a long illness , but at the windswept English links course he rediscovered the form that earned him two winning Ryder Cup appearances .

`` Dad meant a lot to me , '' the world No. 80 told reporters before wiping tears from his eyes . `` He would have been very proud of what I did today . That 's all I 've really got to say about that .

`` Today was a massive step in the right direction for me . I have been finding golf extremely difficult but I did a lot of work with -LRB- coach -RRB- Pete -LRB- Cowen -RRB- yesterday and some things just started to make a bit of sense .

`` I do n't know if I can keep this up for the rest of the week . The start-all-over process has taken a lot longer than I wanted to , but I suppose that 's part of the process . Let 's just say I have realized this year there 's more important things in life than golf . ''

Lewis has already tasted success at Royal St. George 's , having won the British boys ' amateur title there in 2009 .

His father Brian , a former tour professional , named him after five-time British Open champion Tom Watson -- who was one of the Englishman 's playing partners , with the 61-year-old American ending the day equal 71st after a 72 .

Showing no nerves in such illustrious company , Lewis carded the lowest round by an amateur at golf 's oldest tournament , surpassing the 66 shot by Frank Stranahan in 1950 , Tiger Woods -LRB- 1996 -RRB- and Justin Rose -LRB- 1998 -RRB- .

He also became the first non-professional to lead the tournament after the opening round since 1968 .

`` It was really great out there today , '' Lewis told reporters . `` When we started , I heard a lot of shouts like , ` Come on Tom ' but I suspect they might have been for the other Tom , not me . But in the end I thought maybe there were a few for me , -- it would be nice to think so anyway . ''

Lewis birdied four of his last five holes to catch Bjorn as they took a one-shot advantage into Friday 's second round from Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez and Americans Lucas Glover and Webb Simpson .

Glover , who won the 2009 U.S. Open , finished with three successive birdies while Simpson -- still seeking his first professional title -- picked up shots at the last two .

They were two shots ahead of a group of 12 players tied for sixth place , including U.S. PGA champion Martin Kaymer of Germany , 2010 U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell and former European Ryder Cup star Darren Clarke .

Among that cluster was American debutant Kyle Stanley , a 23-year-old who qualified for the 140th staging of the tournament when he finished second at the PGA Tour 's John Deere Classic last weekend .

McIlroy , playing for the first time since winning his breakthrough major at the U.S. Open three weeks ago , battled back from a bad start to card a one-over 71 for a share of 51st .

The 22-year-old bogeyed two of his first three holes , but responded with birdies at the eighth , 13th and 17th holes to match the score of world No. 1 Luke Donald , second-ranked Lee Westwood , U.S. Open runner-up Jason Day of Australia and South Africa 's Masters champion Charl Schwartzel .

The Northern Irishman , seeking to be the youngest winner since 1893 , led last year at St Andrew 's after a first-round 63 , but crashed with 80 in the second .

`` I struggled a bit with my speed all day on the greens , but it was a day where you just needed to grind out a score , and anywhere around even par was a good start , '' McIlroy said .

`` On a day like this you can shoot a high number and put yourself out of the golf tournament , so it was nice to go out and shoot a decent score . I feel like if you keep it around level par this week you 're going to have a good chance . ''

Donald , who like Westwood has never won a major , is one of the favorites following his victory at last weekend 's weather-shortened Scottish Open .

The Englishman carded two birdies and a bogey in his front nine , but dropped three shots between 11 and 15 before pulling one back at 17 .

They were a shot better off than American Phil Mickelson , who was in another sizeable group tied for 36th on 70 that also included Spain 's Sergio Garcia , after carding two birdies and two bogeys .

Mickelson 's compatriot John Daly , the 1995 winner , was tied for 71st on 72 along with South Africa 's 2002 champion Ernie Els and reigning titleholder Louis Oosthuizen .

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Thomas Bjorn takes early clubhouse lead in first round of British Open

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Danish golfer , whose father died in May , cards five-under-par 65 in Sandwich

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He is joined at the top by 20-year-old English amateur Tom Lewis as they lead by one

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U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy battles back from bad start to card 71